An Internet protocol camera, or IP camera, is a type of digital video camera commonly employed for surveillance, and which, unlike analog closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, can send and receive data via a computer network and the Internet. Although most cameras that do this are webcams, the term “IP camera” or “netcam” is usually applied only to those used for surveillance.
There are two kinds of IP cameras:
Centralized IP cameras, which require a central Network Video Recorder (NVR) to handle the recording, video and alarm management.
Decentralized IP cameras, which do not require a central Network Video Recorder (NVR), as the cameras have recording functionality built-in and can thus record directly to digital storage media, such as flash drives, hard disk drives or network attached storage.
The first centralized IP camera was released in 1996 by Axis Communications. It was called the Axis Neteye 200 and was developed by the team of Martin Gren and Carl-Axel Alm. It used a custom web server internal to the camera. In late 1999, the company started using embedded Linux to operate its cameras. Axis also released documentation for its low-level API called “VAPIX”, which builds on the open standards of HTTP and real time streaming protocol (RTSP). This open architecture was intended to encourage third-party software manufacturers to develop compatible management and recording software.
The first decentralized IP camera was released in 1999 by Mobotix. The camera's Linux system contained video, alarm and recording management functionality, thus the camera system did not require licensed video management software to manage the recording, event and video management.
The first IP camera with onboard video content analytics (VCA) was released in 2005 by Intellio. This camera was capable of detecting a number of different events, such as an object was stolen, a human crosses a line, a human entered a predefined zone, a car goes the wrong way.
IP cameras are available at resolutions from 0.3 (VGA resolution) to 20 megapixels. As in the consumer TV business, in the early 21st century, there has been a shift towards high-definition video resolutions, e.g. 720p or 1080i and 16:9 widescreen format.
Taking the above into account, there clearly remains a need, in the field of network and IP Cameras, for better more efficient systems, apparatuses, devices and methods for network camera backup, and other network edge device backup, that may allow for network cameras and other network edge device to continue their operation while coping with various power, communication, storage and tampering scenarios.